Background
Anette Gordon-Reed was born on November 19, 1958, in Livingston, Texas. She is the daughter of Bettye Jean Gordon and Alfred Gordon.
2019
Washington, DC, United States
Actress Alfre Woodard speaks as United States Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, anthropologist Johnnetta Cole and historian Annette Gordon-Reed listen during an event at the Emancipation Hall of the United States Capitol September 10, 2019, in Washington, DC. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) held a ceremony to commemorate "the 400th anniversary of the first-recorded forced arrival of enslaved African people."
2011
Annette Gordon-Reed
2019
Washington, DC, United States
Actress Alfre Woodard speaks as United States Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, anthropologist Johnnetta Cole and historian Annette Gordon-Reed listen during an event at the Emancipation Hall of the United States Capitol September 10, 2019, in Washington, DC. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) held a ceremony to commemorate "the 400th anniversary of the first-recorded forced arrival of enslaved African people."
Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Annette holds a Juris Doctor (1984) from Harvard Law School.
Hanover, NH 03755, United States
Annette holds a Bachelor of Arts (1981) from Dartmouth College.
President Barack Obama presents Livingston’s Annette Gordon-Reed with the National Humanities Medal, the highest national honor for the arts and humanities.
Professor Annette Gordon-Reed
Photo of Annette Gordon-Reed
Photo of Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed with Robert Reed at The New York Public Library
Photo of Annette Gordon-Reed
(When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first...)
When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson's sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Among all aspects of Jefferson's renowned life, it was perhaps the most hotly contested topic. The publication of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars' evaluations of the existing evidence. In this study, Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged thirty-eight-year liaison necessarily took place but rather that the evidence for its taking place has been denied a fair hearing. Friends of Jefferson sought to debunk the Hemings story as early as 1800, and most subsequent historians and biographers followed suit, finding the affair unthinkable based upon their view of Jefferson's life, character, and beliefs.
https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Jefferson-Sally-Hemings-Controversy-ebook/dp/B00930JLZ8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Thomas+Jefferson+and+Sally+Hemings%3A+An+American+Controversy&qid=1597819334&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
1997
(The civil rights leader, attorney, and former head of the...)
The civil rights leader, attorney, and former head of the National Urban League recounts his boyhood in segregated Atlanta, his career, and the social changes he helped to bring about.
https://www.amazon.com/Vernon-Can-Read-Memoir-Jordan/dp/189162069X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1597819424&sr=1-1
2001
(This book of twelve original essays will bring together t...)
This book of twelve original essays will bring together two themes of American culture: law and race. The essays fall into four groups: cases that are essential to the history of race in America; cases that illustrate the treatment of race in American history; cases of great fame that became the trials of the century of their time; and cases that made important law. Some of the cases discussed include Amistad, Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Scottsboro, Korematsu v. US, Brown v. Board, Loving v. Virginia, Regents v. Bakke, and OJ Simpson. All illustrate how race often determined the outcome of trials, and how trials that confront issues of racism provide a unique lens on American cultural history. Cases include African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Caucasians. Contributors include a mix of junior and senior scholars in law schools and history departments.
https://www.amazon.com/Race-Trial-Justice-American-Viewpoints/dp/0195122801/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Race+on+Trial%3A+Law+and+Justice+in+American+History&qid=1597819488&s=books&sr=1-1
2002
(A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian recounts the tale of t...)
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian recounts the tale of the unwanted president who ran afoul of Congress over Reconstruction and was nearly removed from office Andrew Johnson never expected to be president. But just six weeks after becoming Abraham Lincoln's vice president, the events at Ford's Theatre thrust him into the nation's highest office. Johnson faced a nearly impossible task - to succeed America's greatest chief executive, to bind the nation's wounds after the Civil War, and to work with a Congress controlled by the so-called Radical Republicans. Annette Gordon-Reed, one of America's leading historians of slavery, shows how ill-suited Johnson was for this daunting task. His vision of reconciliation abandoned the millions of former slaves (for whom he felt undisguised contempt) and antagonized congressional leaders, who tried to limit his powers and eventually impeached him. The climax of Johnson's presidency was his trial in the Senate and his acquittal by a single vote, which Gordon-Reed recounts with drama and palpable tension. Despite his victory, Johnson's term in office was a crucial missed opportunity; he failed the country at a pivotal moment, leaving America with problems that we are still trying to solve.
https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Johnson-Presidents-President-1865-1869/dp/0805069488/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Andrew+Johnson%3A+The+American+Presidents+Series%E2%80%94The+17th+President%2C+1865%E2%80%931869&qid=1597819598&s=books&sr=1-1
2011
(Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, "Most Blessed ...)
Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs" is one of the richest and most insightful accounts of Thomas Jefferson in a generation.
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Blessed-Patriarchs-Jefferson-Imagination-ebook-dp-B00ZAT8WTM/dp/B00ZAT8WTM/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1597815962
2016
Anette Gordon-Reed was born on November 19, 1958, in Livingston, Texas. She is the daughter of Bettye Jean Gordon and Alfred Gordon.
Annette holds a Bachelor of Arts (1981) from Dartmouth College and a Juris Doctor (1984) from Harvard Law School.
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. Gordon-Reed won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008, for "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family" (2008).
Her first book, "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy" (1997), propelled her to fame as an authority on the now- documented affair between President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black slaves. Gordon-Reed has continued to document what she calls "black people's input and black people’s participation in American society" by coauthoring political figure Vernon E. Jordan's memoir "Vernon Can Read!" Her fervor for the rights of blacks has led to an array of works, from editing "Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History" (2002) to numerous extrapolations on the controversial lineage and miscegenation of the Hemings family, as well as other families in nineteenth-century America.
She edited, "Andrew Johnson" (2010), where Annette recounts the tale of the unwanted president who ran afoul of Congress over Reconstruction and was nearly removed from office and, most recently, with Peter S. Onuf, "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination" (2016). In this book, they present an absorbing and revealing character study that dispels the many clichés that have accrued over the years about the third president of the United States.
Gordon-Reed was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford (Queens College) 2014-2015. Between 2010 and 2015, she was the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
(A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian recounts the tale of t...)
2011(The civil rights leader, attorney, and former head of the...)
2001(When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first...)
1997(Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, "Most Blessed ...)
2016(This book of twelve original essays will bring together t...)
2002Gordon-Reed was the 2018-2019 President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR). In 2019, Annette was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. She is the current President of the Ames Foundation.
As a little girl, Gordon-Reed took a keen interest in the historical legend of Thomas Jefferson.
Annette is married to Robert Reed. They have two children.